Monday, March 26, 2007

T-Mobile

T-Mobile launched their SL island on the CeBit show in Germany.

The 2 islands share a common "tropical isle" theme, but serve 2 different functions. First, there's the information and events island - the place to go to find out stuff. Then there's the beach island, where you can go to chill out, dance like a loon or laze in the Sun. The second island is largely unadorned.



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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

My Virtual T-Ford


Second Life is the medium of the future, or at least of the 21st century. It is a place where one can walk, fly and teleport from place to place. Traditional transportation like cars and planes have become obsolete in this world.


Amazingly, cars have become a status symbol in this world in a very short time. I must admit, I've seen some cool designs -most of them about L$ 3.000 (about 10 Euro -no BPM). Way out of my hobby budget. So I settled for a classic, a T-Ford built by Aimee Weber.

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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Mercedes


Last Friday (16th) Mercedes launched their new 'C' Class car in RL and SL, and it seems to be something of a hit with the virtual petrolheads of SL. I popped along for a look earlier today, when there were about 20 such afficianados lining up to grab a car and zoom around the newly re-configured track, which now features a jump and a slalom to add a bit of zesty excitement to proceedings.

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Sunday, March 18, 2007

Dancing Stormtroopers

The virtual world of Second Life gives people seemingly endless opportunities to have an eternal carnival. Bizar outfits can be observed at almost every street corner. Tons of people do serious roleplaying in sims on the Elfencontinent or the Star Trek sim, but here's an odd one out "the dancing stormtrooper"



When I just finished my virtual shot of whiskey in (arguably) SL's most popular bar, the Blarney Stone in virtual Dublin, I suddenly came across this phenomenon. One should try to picture a full grown actor wearing the heavy metal outfit from the original score and shove him into a warm, crowded pub. On the other hand, try to imagine the stormtroopers dancing the jig in the Empire strikes back...

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Into the Arena

AJAX Amsterdam - one of the most famous names in the sport - opened up an island in Second Life yesterday. The build work, which is to a high standard, has been carried out by Nemesis Content Creation, the team behind innovative inworld game ideas such as Numbakulla, a Myst-like game deployed in SL. Reading about the site in other blogs, it seems that the Dutch telco KPN may be is a co-sponsor.I guess it should come as no surprise to find the site is dominated by a football stadium (the arena), that is an uncannily good simulation for their RL stadium. I know there is a War of Virtual Aesthetics in parts of SL, between those who believe it is good and healthy to import RL buildings into SL, and those for whom it is a complete abomination. Personally, I hate the zealotry coming from the more extreme factions in this "war". In my view, if you have an iconic building in RL, then flaunt it in SL - provided you do it justice. I think the Nemesis team have done a great job in transforming the RL stadium in to SL. Certainly the grass seems to be in better shape than the RL


Special thanks to Aleister Kronos

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Virtual Weather

Is there anything more exciting than talking about the weather? Being Dutch, the usual talk about the weatherconditions is kinda boring. I'm tired of all those rainy days, I hate cold and can't wait for summer to kick in (though preferably without tropical temperatures.

Alas, I can't control Real Life weather, but on the Epic Condition sims, extreme weather is a challenge!

So what's it all about? Well, Epic Conditions is a new show from the Weather Channel, that describes itself as "your daily shot of weather adrenaline!" The programme airs on the Weather Channel every Sunday at 9:00pm ET/PT from March 4th to April 1, which, if I'm not mistaken, makes it rather less than a daily shot of weather adrenaline.





The concept of the show is to tie extreme sports to weather information - a laudable aim, though whether it will drag in the punters is another matter. And so to the SL island. In effect,the island is divided into 5 zones - one per sim.The hub is the main Weather sim, with a reception area, a number of video screens and links off to webpages. To the West of this is the Surf zone, where you can sit by a beach bar and watch surfers play among the mighty waves that crash majestically onto the shore. At least, I assume that's the theory. Unfortunately, owing to the limitations of the SL programming environment these look less like waves, and more like giant blue mittens, pawing their way towards you. Somewhere along the line, my adrenaline level dropped off, and I took advantage of the lifeguard's chair to have a Hasselhoff Moment to myself.

Special thanks to Aleister Kronos.

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Friday, March 16, 2007

Sloppy performance by Weber

When one of SL's design guru's, Aimee Weber, was asked to participate in the built of the sim of one of the sexiest SL companies, Millions of US, one thought it would be one big showcase for SL architecture. Well, the auditorium is awesome as you can see on the pic below.




An insider at MoU however told me there was sloppy work involved. When closely examening the structures on the island.... well, you be the judge.

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Millions%20of%20Us/123/97/56

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Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Second Life ESSENTials

One of the most obvious things to do on Second Life is job recruitment. Be a hip company and show it by your SL Presence. No wonder agencies like Randstad are planning to go Virtual.

However, it is not the job agencies that are among the first to try this new medium for recruitment. In the Netherlands, one of the first is the energy company Essent.
Their sim was eventbased and designed for the Nationale Carrierebeurs in the Amsterdam Rai (9-10 march 2007) and built by [Lost in the] Magic Forest.

The event and SL presence were a success, they received quite a number of applicants through SL.

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Time to add some Content

Today I received a sneak preview at the new sim of the Content Job Agency... Randstad is facing some serious competition. Another great sim being built by [Lost in the] Magic Forest.

When the sim goes public I'll put up some pics ;)

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Friday, March 02, 2007

SL gives you a warm welcome

When I joined Second Life somewhere in 2006 there was a basic introduction island - a tutorial. After you'd mastered the basics of SL (walking, flying, teleportation and changing your appearance) you were set loose in the wild wild world. At that time the point of entry was the sim called Luna, just south of the urban sims Grigano, Barcola and Sistiana (collectively known as Nova Albion).

Nowadays there's a new version of baby-island and probably a new 'drop-zone', but Luna wasn't the first drop-zone. Before Luna there was Ahern and the adjacent sims. They can easily be spotted, east of Nova Albion on the mainland. On the map a large X on the border of 4 sims marks the old point of entry. This point of entry reminds me somewhat of the London Market Gardens. Ahern is beyond the meet and greet now and has degraded to a pick-up zone and looney-showcase. If you avoid the looney days, SL might just give you a warm welcome here.


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